One Last Time
by never-trust-a-red-haired-girl
Summary: Re-write of "Nothing Lasts Forever." Jim x OC. Rated for violence, gore, language and my own perverted mind
1. Chapter 1

One Last Time

Chapter 1

Silver walked through the darkened grounds of the circus. The sun had just set but it was already so dark that, if it weren't for both his cyborg eye and the street lights, he wouldn't be able to see his hand in front of his face. What light there was, however, was fighting to be seen through the haze of smoke created by the fires that gypsies were huddles around and the large amount of pipes being smoked by the rich patrons. The smell of incense and tobacco saturated the air as both gypsies and prostitutes tried to coax men and women into their tents to milk them for every last dabloon they had.

He snorted in disgust as his eyes scanned the crowd, looking for something in particular. He had heard that there was something unusual and most likely valuable being carried around by this particular band of degenerates. He was planning on relieving them of such a burden, but he needed to find it first.

"Come one! Come all! See the most startling thing to grace our galaxy! There is no other like it in all the universe today!"

Silver smirked and headed to the elaborate tent that a grotesque humanoid alien was advertising for. This could possibly be what he had come to find. As the crowd gathered into the tent, he could hear the sounds of bones breaking, blood spurting, and screams of agony coming from the other side of the curtain in that order. He frowned as the alien creature from before walked out in front of the blood red curtain. "Ladies and Gentlemen!" It yelled out. "You have all come here tonight to see something incredible and you will not be disappointed. Without further ado, I give to you the last earthling to ever grace our universe with her presence."

The curtain drew back to show a large cage. Standing yet chained to the floor by her ankles and wrists was a red headed human female. Her sun-kissed skin seemed to glow in the torchlight that was used to light the cage and her eyes, which were the brightest shade of yellow Silver had ever seen, glared out with enough hatred and anger that if looks could kill she could level a small planet. Other than whipping scars there was a large burn that went from the elbow of her left arm all the way up her neck to stop at the corner of her pouty lips which were pulled back into a snarl to show off perfectly white teeth. A tattoo of what appeared to be just mindless scribble ran in a line from her right temple to the outer corner of her right eye. Behind the girl, for she could be no older than fourteen, was the body of what might have been a tormentor lying in his own blood.

The girl charged forward, her eyes trained on the ringmaster, only to be held back by the chains. She opened her mouth to speak, her voice chilling Silver to the bone. "Is féidir leat sruthán do eternity sna seacht shraith de ifreann, Coward."

The word "coward" came out clear enough and the master glared at her before taking the whip from his belt and lashing at her. She just grinned in a way that said that she was clearly insane before she let out a chilling cackle. "An é sin an chuid is fearr a fuair tú, worm? Come on! Kill dom! Cuir mé as mo misery!"

Silver turned and walked out of the tent, shaking his head. He needed to find his crew and figure out where all the loot was.

Smoke.

That was the smell that assaulted her nose later that night. Now, this wasn't unusual considering where she was. What was unusual was the screams of terror she heard from the gypsies and whores along with the sounds of guns going off. _A raid?_ She wondered, cracking one yellow eye open. She could see the tent across the way on fire through the flaps of the tent she was being held in. Suddenly the flaps flew open and the ring master ran in, his back to her cage. He was slowly backing up, probably not realizing where he was. _Closer._ She silently urged him. He backed up some more. She could almost reach him. _Just a little more._

Finally he backed up enough that she was able to reach forward and wrap her arms around his neck before bringing him back and bashing his skull against the bars once, twice, three times. Blood sprayed from the wound as he slumped and she bashed his head once more for good measure before grabbing the keys from one of his pockets. She grinned and let go, watching with a curious look as his body fell forward to lie motionlessly on the floor. "Oops." She said before cackling and unlocking her cell. She bent down and took the ringmaster's dagger and gun before whispering "Have fun in Hell" and shooting him in the head. She didn't want to risk the possibility that he lived.

She immediately ran out of her tent and into a different one, grabbing some decent clothes and changing quickly out of the purp sack that she was forced to wear and into a loose fitting pair of black slacks and black sailor boots. She grabbed a silk piece of black fabric and tore into two pieces, one longer than the other. She tied the longer piece around her rather decent sized bust and the shorted one she used as a bandana to keep her hair out of her face. She grabbed another strip of blood red fabric and used it as a belt to both hold up the pants and to hold the gun and dagger. Then she quickly left the tent to return to the chaos outside.

She ran towards the tent that was the Ring Master's personal quarters and started to franticly look through boxes. She let out a sigh of relief when she opened one and saw what she was looking for. It was an old gold dabloon with the engraving of an infamous Jolly Roger on one side and the initials N.M.F. printed in elegant text in the other side. It was held onto a simple black chord using gold wire. She tied it around her neck and then left the tent, leaving most of the gold that she found in her search and taking only enough to maybe get her a bed and hot meal at an inn.

However, when she opened the flap she was met by a rather large humanoid cyborg alien. They stared at each other in surprise before she bolted around him and ran for any place that might be safe only to be caught in a pair of crab-like red claws. Whatever had grabbed her proceeded to drag her back to the Ring Master's tent before turning her to face the cyborg. The man looked her up and down before his eyes rested on the dabloon around her neck, or, more specifically, the Jolly Roger that was printed on it. His eyes widened as he gasped. It was the Jolly Roger of Captain Nathaniel Flint. "Where did you get that?" he asked.

"It was given to me." The girl replied with a faint accent.

"By who?"

"I don't know. I've had it since birth."

Silver stroked his chin in thought, completely disregarding the now silent camp and the fires that were burning it to the ground. "What's yer name, lass?"

She hesitated before fixing him with a steely gaze. "Noah."

"Well, Miss Noah." Silver started as his crew gathered behind him with the flames of the circus creating a backdrop. "Welcome to me crew."


	2. An Opportune Moment

**A/N: Okies! So I know this seems shorter than what I usually write, but I can assure you that it's only because of the lack of dialogue. That will be "corrected" in the next chapter, so please bear with me. Also, I'm going to try something new. For every chapter, I will give a song that I feel fits with it. The song for the last chapter would have been "Bodies" by Drowning Pool. Kind of fitting, yes?**

One Last Time

Chapter 2

Song for this Chapter: "Everything Burns" by Ben Moody feat. Anastacia

A red-headed girl with yellow eyes and a scarred face sat at a table in the corner of the Benbow Inn, watching the aliens interact with one another in the dining room. The scar on her face had somehow expanded and was now taking up her left cheek and reaching her temple and went from her ear to the side of her nose. She was sent ahead of the rest of Silver's crew to make sure that nothing could go wrong on this end. They planned on cornering Billy Bones at this inn and then taking the map, knocking down anyone who stood in their way. That part made her uneasy. She had no problem with killing people like the Ring Master and her various tormentors, but she didn't like the idea of killing innocents. This mindset had gotten her in some hot water with Silver and the rest of the crew on multiple occasions but she always managed to get back on their "good" side.

She was startled out of her people watching by the front door slamming open to reveal two robo-cops accompanying a boy who looked like he could be around her age. He was actually kind of cute. She pulled up the collar of the black trench coat Silver had given her on one of his rare moments of parent-like affection as she tried to make herself as small as possible. Silver had done all he could to make sure her picture couldn't get on any wanted posters but one could never be too careful in her line of business.

"Mrs. Hawkins," one of the cops started, "we apprehended your son operating a solar vehicle in a restricted area." The yellow eyed girl couldn't help but roll her eyes. She hated how the cops spoke like they were more intelligent than the rest of the population. "Moving violation nine-zero-four section fifteen paragraph… uh…"

"Six." The red-head automatically chimed at the same time as the boy. She kept her eyes trained on the glass of juice in front of her as she felt the eyes of not only the cops and the boy, but also almost every other patron of the inn. When the attention went back to the boy's predicament she spared a glimpse up only to have her eyes meet a pair that could either be grey or blue, she wasn't sure. They were the eyes of the boy, who was shifting his attention from who she assumed was his mother, then to her, then back to his mother to repeat the pattern. But when his eyes met hers he couldn't help but stare. Her eyes were stone cold, the kind of eyes a person would have after witnessing horrible things. Things that he could only imagine.

His attention was averted back to his current situation when he was forcefully shoved forward towards his mother by the two cops. At the same time this happened, the girl looked back down towards the table for a few seconds before standing and leaving the room after placing some small coins on the table as payment. As she left she could feel a pair of eyes on her back as the boy watched her.

It was later that night and the girl was lounging on the bed in her room. She saw Bones' ship crash land at the docks outside the inn and was now waiting for the right moment to make an entrance. A crash like that was sure to leave the old turtle mortally wounded. She just had to wait for him to die before showing up in the main entrance of the inn in case he recognized her and called her out.

She heard what sounded like wood being broken and smelled smoke from downstairs. "Subtle as always." She muttered sarcastically, already knowing that Silver and his crew were here. At least she didn't have to worry about that entrance now. The door flew open and she barely had enough time to see a head of brown hair before her wrist was grabbed and she was being dragged out of her room and down the hall by the boy from before. She was never one for passing up an opportunity like this. "What's going on? Is that smoke?" she asked, pretending to panic.

"Pirates." The boy said before tossing her out an open window into a cart and then jumping in himself. A dog-like humanoid alien cracked the reins on a two legged lizard and the cart took off. The girl looked at the woman next to her with empathy. She knew what it was like to have your home destroyed. However, she was distracted by a gleam coming from her other side and turned to see the boy holding the map.

Opportunity indeed.


	3. Moving Forward

One Last Time

Chapter 3

Song for this Chapter: "Kashmir" by Led Zepplin

The red haired girl stared out of a window towards the town in the distance. The dog humanoid, whom the girl learned was named Delbert Doppler, had taken all three of the humans to his observatory-turned-house. The older woman, Mrs. Hawkins, was seated in front of the fireplace just staring at nothing while her son, the cute boy whose name was Jim, went off to find a blanket for her. The redhead frowned as she wondered how she would be able to get in touch with Silver and inform him of her current predicament and her plan as well as receive orders. "I apologize for bringing you into this." Came the voice of Doppler.

The girl turned, having a feeling that he was addressing her, and smiled a smile that didn't quite reach her hardened eyes. "It's no problem." She said, a faint and unknown accent becoming apparent for the first time. "In fact, I should be thankin' ya. The powers that be only know what would've happened ta me if dem pirates got me." She looked like she just remembered something. "Oh! Beggin' yer pardon, but I haven't introduced myself. The name's Noah."

"Noah?" Doppler asked with slight curiosity. "Just where are you from?"

Noah shook her head. "Dun remember anyt'ing before two years ago." She told him, the lie coming easily to her. "All I remember is wakin' up in the middle of a camp that had been burned to the ground and bein' found by my caretaker."

"Are you a traveller?"

She nodded. "Aye. My caretaker and I are sailors." She motioned to the sphere that Jim had picked up. "I've heard tales of that thing. That there is a map, but no one really knows how to read it."

"A map?" Jim asked excitedly. "Like a treasure map?"

Noah nodded. "But that's no ordinary treasure map. 'Tis a map to the greatest find of all." She smirked and stared directly at the boy's eyes. "Treasure Planet."

Jim's eyes widened and he looked at the thing in his hands before starting to tinker with it. "Treasure Planet is only a myth." Mrs. Hawkins said, her gaze flitting between Noah and her son.

"Ma'am, ya seem ta be forgettin' somethin' important." Noah said, her hard gaze resting on the aforementioned woman. "All myths are based on some fact."

Mrs. Hawkins stared at the girl with a slightly surprised look, whether at her eyes or what she said no one knew. Delbert cleared his throat to bring attention to himself. "Whether or not what you say is true," he said, directing the statement towards Noah, "the fact remains that it could take years for me to figure out how to-"

He was cut off by a click and the sound of a machine warming up. Jim had unlocked the map. A green light swirled upward in a pattern that reminded Noah of a tornado or a whirlpool before expanding out to cover the ceiling, floor and walls with lines that seemed to be latitudes and longitudes. Flecks of gold separated from the green light and reformed into shapes that, upon closer inspection, were actually planets. Noah grinned and stepped forward from the window, looking at each and every planet she passed on her way to where the other three were now standing in the center of the room. "Let's see," she said, making them all look at her. "Ah!" she exclaimed when she found Montressor. "We are here."

She touched the hologram of the planet and suddenly the whole room seemed to shift as the map moved in a certain direction as if showing them the way to its metaphorical "X" from Montressor. There were gold lines connecting one planet to another, showing multiple routes that were possible in order to get to the destination.

Finally, the map stopped at the place where the lines ended. "Treasure Planet." Jim said in awe. "That's Treasure Planet!"

"By ta Powers." Noah breathed out, amazement clear on her face and her accent heavier than it was before.

"Do you know what this means?" Delbert asked, most likely being rhetorical.

"It means all the treasure is just a boat ride away." Jim answered, ignoring the meaning of the word "rhetorical."

Noah reached forward to touch the hologram only to have everything go back to normal as quickly as if someone flipped a switch. "What just happened?" Delbert asked, looking slightly sheepish. Noah smirked and turned to the mother and son.

"Mom, this is it." Jim was saying as he pocketed the map. "This is the answer to all our problems."

"Jim," Mrs. Hawkins started, "there is absolutely no way-"

"Don't you remember all those stories?" Jim asked, cutting her off.

"That's all they were. Stories."

"Mom, with this treasure we could rebuild the Benbow a hundred times over."

Noah snorted. "I thought you were smart." She said, crossing her arms and smirking at the annoyed look she got from Jim. "You should do your math better. You could build at least five of those inns, ten times as grand, on every planet in this galaxy. That's how vast this fortune is!"

Mrs. Hawkins looked exasperated at the two teens. "Delbert, please tell them how insane this is."

"It's completely preposterous." Delbert said, adopting the kind of pose that Noah expected of a high class Nobleman from Earth. "Traversing the galaxy alone."

"At last." Mrs. Hawkins said, looking satisfied. "We hear some sense."

"That's why I'm coming with you." Delbert quickly added before grabbing a bag and running around the room while babbling and collecting things. Noah would never admit it, but she found the good Doctor incredibly amusing. When Mrs. Hawkins voiced her doubts about the whole thing Delbert said, "All my life I've been waiting for an opportunity like this and now here it is screaming 'Go Delbert, Go Delbert.'" He proceeded on doing a dorky little dance that threw Noah into a giggle fit that continued even when Mrs. Hawkins declared that all three of them were grounded.

"Mom," Jim started. "I know I keep messing things up. And I know that I let you down. But this is my chance to make it up to you. This is my chance to make things right."

Noah rolled her eyes at the general corniness of the moment before her eyes caught the title of a book on the table next to her. She managed to pry the book out from under the stack without having it all tumble down on top of her and gazed at the cover curiously. "Conspiracies Volume 42: The Demise of the Planet Earth."

She frowned and all but threw the book back onto the table. Luckily, everyone was too engrossed in their own problems to notice a stranger's odd reaction to the innocent book. She turned to once again look out the window, putting her arm up against the glass and resting her forehead against it. She glared out at twinkling lights of the town in the distance. All those people were probably sleeping by now, completely unaware of how much worse their lives could be as they complained to their significant others about their bosses or how little money they make. They don't know true suffering like she did.

She felt the need to fight, to pulverize something or someone until her anger subsided. Instead, she closed her eyes and imagined her favorite place to be back on her home planet. She imagined the emerald grass and rolling hills where the sheep grazed. Old cobblestone walls lined a dirt road and the field dead-ended at a cliff that overlooked the sea, and on the other side of the road was a field of barley. If she tried hard enough she could smell the salt from the sea and the distinct smell of dew-covered grass.

She let out a calming sigh as she felt her eyes burn with the need to cry but she held them back. Crying was a sign of weakness to the standards of most people. To her, it was a sign that she was alive and had been from the moment she was born. But to people like the Ring Master, it was a sign that you were finally breaking. And to Silver and the crew, it was a sign of the most intolerable weakness. She had seen one crewmate thrown overboard by his fellow members for shedding a tear while cutting some kind of vegetable that had the same effect as an onion.

"Ms. Noah?" Delbert asked, breaking her out of her reverie and causing her to make him the focus of her attention instead of the landscape outside the window. "You said your caretaker and yourself are both sailors?"

"Aye." She confirmed. "Though I am but a mechanic and he a lowly cook."

"Well, it's a start." He said, clapping his hands together. "How about you write him a letter to explain what's going on and to ask him if he would like to join the expedition. I'll be sure to mail it to him. Where is he, anyway?"

"He's at the Space Port lookin' fer a job for us." She said, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder in the general direction of said Port. "Told me to look for somethin' ta do in the meantime."

Delbert nodded. "We shall begin preparations at once, with your help if you're willing." Noah simply nodded. "Soon we'll be headed to the Space Port."


End file.
